The House of Commons committee investigating the Cambridge Analytica scandal is recommending significant changes to Canada's privacy laws, including new rules to govern the activities of political parties.

In an interim report, the committee recommends that Canadian privacy laws be updated to offer data protections similar to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. The privacy commissioner, the committee says, should also be given the power to make orders, conduct audits, seize documents and impose fines for non-compliance.

The committee also proposes that privacy laws be extended to cover political activity. It recommends that online political advertising be subject to new transparency requirements - including disclosure of who paid for an ad and how the ad was targeted at specific audiences.